“‘Daddy shot me!’ She heard another shot but felt nothing: that last shot had been for him”

November 19, 2012

Patricia had been more severely injured than her husband, which may explain to some extent the differences in their responses. Because the bear bit into her face, she had repeated operations on her sinuses. Within weeks of each surgery, infection would set in again. More surgery would follow. Her head and face ached all the time. Patricia needed to experience her body healing in order to make progress, and that just wasn’t happening.

Also, their experiences of the attack had been different in one crucial way. Trevor had had no premonition about the bear. Patricia had ignored the clear warning she had felt.

Lisette duPré Brieger had premonitions, too. She and Marshall Johnson worked in the same office. At the annual Christmas party, she saw him sharpening an axe. She thought it odd, but they worked for an oil company that owned a 400-acre farm in the Virginia countryside. Maybe the axe was for chopping firewood out there.